Central Europe

West Germany T A HE YEAR 1974 saw economic stagnation and recession, a change of government, and a substantial drop in the vote for the ruling Social Democratic party (SPD). The rate of economic growth dropped sharply, gross national product increasing by only 0.4 per cent, as against 5.3 per cent in 1973. At year's end, there were almost one million unemployed. Still, the economic situation in the Federal Republic was better than in any other Western country. The rate of inflation during the year was only 7 per cent. Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt resigned in May. While the immediate cause was the discovery that his personal assistant Guenter Guillaume was an East Ger- man spy, Brandt was also charged by his own party, and by the opposition, with lack of leadership in both the political and economic spheres. He nevertheless remained chairman of the Social Democratic party. He was succeeded on May 16 by Helmut Schmidt, a former Wehrmacht officer who had been a Hamburg senator and had held the portfolios of defense, economy, and finance in the federal government. On May 15 the former chairman of the Free Democratic party (FDP), Walter Scheel, was chosen to succeed Gustav Heinemann as federal president. Former Interior Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, who became foreign minister in Schmidt's cabinet, was named FDP chairman in October. In the various state and local elections held during the year, the ruling Social Democratic party losses ranged from 5 to 13 per cent and the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) gains were between 3 and 8 per cent. The SPD setback was most severe in the March elections for the Hamburg state legislature, where it received only 44.9 per cent of the vote, compared with 55.3 per cent in 1970. The opposition Christian Democrats polled 40.6 per cent, compared with 32.8 in 1970, and the Free Democrats, nearly 10.9, up from 7.1 per cent. The trend begun in Hamburg continued in the communal elections in Schleswig- Holstein and in the council elections in Rhineland-Palatinate. Losses continued after Schmidt succeeded Brandt, in the June legislative elections in Lower Saxony, and the elections to the state legislatures of Hesse and Bavaria showed similar losses. However, slight gains by the Free Democrats retained majorities for the governing coalitions. The neo-Nazi National Democratic party was proportionately the heavi- est loser in Hesse and Bavaria, with a decline of 2.1 and 1.8 per cent from the 1970 elections. 339 340 / AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, 1976 Within the European Economic Community (EEC; Common Market) and NATO there were growing difficulties and differences on questions of energy, and regional and world politics. The Federal Republic appeared to be the strongest and most stable state in EEC, politically and economically. Its export surpluses were the largest. Stagnation marked Bonn's relations with the Eastern bloc. In June the Bundestag ratified the normalization treaty with Czechoslovakia. In the same month President Tito of Yugoslavia visited Germany. Belgrade was granted a credit of DM 700 million. While attempts were made to improve relations with the Arab states, Bonn stressed the unchanging nature of its Middle East policy in respect to the vital interests of Israel. In April Chancellor Brandt visited Algiers and Cairo. An agreement for financial cooperation was concluded with Algeria. Also in April, a Bundestag delegation headed by Gerhard Schroeder, chairman of its foreign affairs committee, went to Cairo. Diplomatic relations with Iraq and Syria were resumed. In July in Bonn, Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher and his Egyptian counterpart, Ismail Fahmy, agreed on close economic cooperation between the two countries, with a promise to Cairo of DM 500 million capital assistance by 1976. In the UN General Assembly the Federal Republic abstained from voting on the resolution regarding the Palestine question, but voted against the admission of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as an observer during UN deliberations. In the debate on Palestine, Bonn's Ambassador Riidiger von Wechmar declared: We support the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people. For us Germans, with our tragic experiences, this goes without saying. We regard it as impermissible to acquire territory by force, and regard it as essential that Israel end the territorial occupation that it has maintained since the 1967 conflict. But we believe that in the settlement of the Palestine question it is necessary to observe all the principles laid down in Security Council decision #242. This means above all that such a settlement must start from respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence of every state in the Near East, as well as the right of these states to live in peace within their recognized boundaries. All states in the region must be guaranteed the right to life and to a secure existence. This applies to Israel in particular. In this connection Genscher stressed that the Federal Republic would not participate in any Middle East policy that did not guarantee Israel's existence and right to live. The CDU/CSU opposition charged that Wechmar's speech was a serious backward step in Germany's Middle East policy and destroyed the credibility of the government's verbal assertions of a special German-Israeli relationship. The position taken in the UN was, it said, extremely inopportune and politically unconsid- ered. In UNESCO Bonn abstained on the question of admitting the PLO, but voted for Israel's acceptance into the European group. In September Gerhard Schroeder met with Yasir Arafat in Damascus. The Social Democratic party expressed its approval on the ground that the information he acquired could be useful. Minister of State Hans-Jiirgen Wischnewski, an SPD member, revealed that he had met with Arafat in 1970. The Central Council of Jews in Germany protested that a leader of terrorists could not be a proper partner in discussions. WEST GERMANY / 341 Chancellor Schmidt sent a telegram to Israel Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin expressing certainty that cooperation between the governments of Germany and Israel would continue, as before, a sentiment he voiced in his official policy statement: "We have an unaltered vital interest in a just and lasting peace settlement in the Middle East. On this I reaffirm the policy of my predecessors in office. We continue to support the peace efforts in this region and will cooperate with our partners in the search for peace." In July Bonn granted Israel capital assistance for 1974, as it had done in previous years: DM 140 million for various development projects. It declared that no "spectacular changes" were planned in cooperation with Israel in regard to development. Since 1950 Israel had received about DM 1.2 billion in development help from Bonn. In September Schroeder and the other members of the Bundestag foreign affairs committee visited Israel and had discussions with President Ephraim Katzir and Prime Minister Rabin, among others.

Extremism Leftist extremism increased during the year, while rightist extremism declined. The number and membership of extreme left organizations grew; while their influence at the universities declined, the campaign against Israel and Zionism by ultra- left students continued unabated. They found imitators among high-school student groups and newspapers. Though there was a decrease in right-wingextremis t groups recorded and in their membership, they tended to become more extreme. The interior ministry's report, "Constitutional Protection 1973," described right-wing extremism in that year as peripheral and no danger to the democratic system. Nor did it consider left-wing extremism a current danger. At the end of 1973 there reportedly were 107 right- wing extremist organizations with 21,700 members, and 78 ultra-rightist publications with an average weekly circulation of 196,700. By far the most important was the Munich weekly Deutsche National-Zeitung, with a circulation of 106,000. There were 1,343 right-wing extremists in the civil service. According to the report, the National Democratic party had about 12,000 members. The same report said that there were 317 ultra-leftist organizations with 87,000 members, and 1,380 publications with a weekly circulation of 880,000. There were 1,423 left-wing extremists in public service. The school system employed 133 right-wing and 322 left-wing extremists. Of the disturbances or threats of force that occurred in that year, 23 were right-extremist and 322 left-extremist; several arrests were made. Among army personnel were 125 right-wing and 33 left-wing extremists. The most prominent of the right extremists was the 51-year-old Lieutenant-Colonel Werner Witt, chairman of the Schleswig-Holstein NPD. Hesse reported 138 left-wing and 134 right-wing extremists in the state's public service; Baden-Wuerttemberg had 246 leftists and 156 rightists, and Bavaria 155 leftists and 247 rightists. Bonn and the prime ministers of the states tried to carry out an earlier decision to regulate the employment 342 / AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, 1976 of extremists in civil service, but by year's end no agreement on procedure had been reached. In April, 15 right extremists and NPD sympathizers disrupted an exhibit on "National Socialist Policy in Poland" held by the Society for German-Polish Under- standing in Berlin-Schoeneberg's town hall. They defaced pictures and documents, and demanded the release of Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess from Spandau prison. In April, too, 50 youths in brown shirts and swastika armbands celebrated Hitler's birthday at Westerland on the island of Sylt, under Hitler photographs and swastika flags. In June two left-wing extremist students were arrested in Erlangen on a charge of having ties with Palestinian terrorists and planting bombs. In November the 21-year-old leader of the Nazi organization in the United States, Gary (Gerhard) R. Lauck of Lincoln, Neb., addressed a meeting of ultra-rightists in Hamburg. He was expelled for serious violation of federal law. Recently, Lauck sent NS- Kampfruf, a Nazi publication printed in Chicago, to sympathizers in West Germany and Austria. In a trial in Karlsruhe in February, three young Germans, Werner Kiihni, Lutz Buhr, and Franz Galuski, and the Jordanian worker Osmar Jara were sentenced to prison terms ranging from six months to three and one-half years for large-scale thefts. The prosecutor dropped the original charge that they had planned acts of violence to win supporters for the Arab cause. In Munich in April, Willi Pohl and Wolfgang Abramowski were sentenced to 26 months and 8 months, respectively, for illegal possession of arms. They were also under investigation for possible ties with the Black September terrorists. In July the federal constitutional court in Karlsruhe rejected a 1969 request of the federal government for the revocation of the constitutional rights of Gerhard Frey, editor-in-chief of the Deutsche National- Zeitung, on the ground that he had abused them. The specific charge was that he had for years published nationalistic, antisemitic, and racist articles, and headlines inimical to international understanding. The court ruled there was no ground for revocation, since the views of the Deutsche National-Zeitung did not constitute a serious danger to the free and democratic constitutional order. In September the Munich prosecutor dropped a similar charge made against Frey in 1966 because of difficulty of proof. In October Das HI. Reich, a periodical dedicated to the documentary presenta- tion of the Nazi period, published the result of a poll of its readers according to which 12 per cent thought it might some day be possible for a new Hitler to seize power in Germany.

Foreign Extremism A report by authorities charged with the protection of the constitution indicated a constant change in the organizational set-up and ideologies of foreign extremist groups. There was, it said, a significant decline in politically motivated acts of violence, as well as in the number and size of foreign extremist organizations. In the WEST GERMANY / 343 first half of 1974, there were 41 acts of violence by foreigners, including an attempted murder, six bombings, two cases of arson, and 64 threats of violence. The security authorities repeatedly warned of possible attacks on airports, airline companies, and Israeli and Jewish institutions; the latter were temporarily placed under special guard. At the end of 1973 there were reported to be in West Germany 226 foreign extremist organizations, whose total membership was 52,400. They had 165 publications, with a total weekly circulation of 15,000. Thirty-six of the groups were engaged in conspiratorial activities resulting in 11 terrorist acts and 139 threats of violence. Most important were the activities of individual Palestinian groups, although they had decreased since the Generalunion Palastinensischer Studenten, (GUPS; General Union of Palestinian Students) and the Generalunion Palastinen- sischer Arbeiter (GUPA; General Union of Palestinian Workers) were banned in 1972. Former members of these two organizations failed in efforts to rebuild them or establish substitute groups, but cells continued to exist in numerous major cities. Many of them joined Arab college student associations, or became behind-the- scenes workers of the Middle East and Palestine committees directed by German ultra-leftists. Turkish and Iraqi extremists, too, had some connection with these groups, the report stated. The anti-Israel propaganda of the Arab extremists continued in 1974, especially in German institutions of higher learning. In this they had the full support of the German extreme left, especially the Maoists. The Palestine Committees carried on public activity against Israel in many cities. There were repeated anti-Israel demon- strations during a so-called Palestine Week. In March four Arabs were tried in Berlin for bringing explosives from East to West Berlin and planning to attack the El-Al office and other, German, institutions. Ali Salem was sentenced to four years, and Mohammed Zaher to three years in prison for active involvement. The other two, Salim Hamdan and Ali Shehade, were acquitted. Salem and Zaher were expelled to Cairo after Palestinian threats to free them. In June an Arab student in Heidelberg and another in Saarbriicken were arrested on suspicion of preparing attacks on El-Al and the Israel embassy; they were released for lack of evidence.

Relations with Israel In the autumn Eliashiv Ben-Horin was succeeded as ambassador to Bonn by Yohanan Meroz. When he presented his credentials to President Scheel in October, he stated that his country's relations with Germany developed and deepened pro- ductively in the nearly ten years since the first exchange of diplomatic representatives; that reciprocal official visits did much to stimulate personal relationships. In his response, Scheel pointed particularly to cooperation in economic, scientific, and technical matters, and in cultural and youth activities. "It is our desire," he declared, "to continue these good relations and to pass on this desire to the young generation of both countries." For this reason, "the German Federal Republic sees 344 / AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, 1976 great significance in the contact of its youth with the youth of the State of Israel," which cannot but serve the cause of "genuine understanding." In addition to bilat- eral relations, he continued, "we are especially interested in a lasting peace settlement in the Middle East," a goal "which is also of great importance to us," which can be best served "by continuing our balanced Middle East policy." Jesco von Puttkamer was succeeded as German ambassador to Israel by Per Fischer who had served as a soldier in the Wehrmacht and, after the war, worked as a journalist and later became a diplomat. During the year the SPD and CDU repeatedly expressed themselves in favor of Israel's right to exist. CDU speakers referred to a special historical interest in the Jewish state and called on the government to make it clear to the entire world that it would neither overtly nor covertly identify with those who sought Israel's destruction. Statements by the chairmen of the youth sections of the major political parties reflected the attitude of German youth. The Young Socialists (SPD), Young Demo- crats (FDP), and the Young Union (CDU) agreed that relations with the State of Israel must in no way be determined by the German people's guilt feeling toward the Jews. All advocated Israel's right to exist, as well as support of the rights of the Palestinians. The Young Democrats emphasized their rejection of political or military aggression by any state, noting their deep concern over "Zionist tendencies in Israeli foreign policy." In December, 46 prominent West Berliners, among them Mayor Klaus Schuetz, Bishop Kurt Scharf, and publisher Axel Springer, published a declaration, "Justice for Israel," appealing to Bonn to defend in future UN debates Israel's right to exist and to promote peace by declarations and acts that could not be misinterpreted. They said: "We are not prepared to confer the honorable name of freedom fighters on the air pirates, murderers of Munich, and child-killers of Ma'alot." In February former CDU chairman Rainer Barzel and Mayor Schuetz visited Israel. In April they were followed by Postal Minister Horst Ehmke. In December Israel received visits from Development Minister Egon Bahr and from an FDP delegation headed by the party's general secretary, Martin Bangemann. A delegation of the Bundes- tag's petition committee was studying the petition system in Israel at the end of the year. In connection with the German abstentions from voting on UN and UNESCO resolutions, the Central Federation of Democratic Resistance Fighters and Organi- zations of Persecutees in Bonn in November criticized the "opportunistic attitude" of the federal government and demanded "a clear and unequivocal declaration guaranteeing Israel's right to live, without deference to oil." Because of its past, Germany could not allow itself the sort of attitude toward Israel that, in case of necessity, might have to be accepted from other states. In November a number of German writers, including Heinrich Boll, Siegfried Lenz, and Wolfgang Weyrauch, as well as the German PEN center, refused further cooperation with UNESCO. More than 100 parliamentarians from 13 West European countries, who were members of friendship-with-Israel groups of European parliamentarians established WEST GERMANY / 345 in Paris in November 1973, met in West Berlin in February. They adopted a resolution supporting Israel in its efforts "to establish a just and lasting peace with its neighbors" and criticizing the November 1973 declaration of EEC's foreign ministers on the Middle East. At the beginning of the year the EMNID Institute in Bielefeld published the results of a public opinion poll on attitudes toward the Middle East conflict: 40 per cent of the German people sympathized with Israel, 6 per cent supported the Arabs, 45 per cent had no special sympathies, and 8 per cent did not know. Almost 70 per cent thought that Boon should be neutral in the conflict, 14 per cent that it should favor Israel, and 5 per cent that it should favor the Arabs. In the EMNID October poll, the percentage of those favoring Israel was essentially the same (39.4 per cent), higher than the proportion in France (36 per cent), Great Britain (32.1 per cent), and Italy (29.7 per cent). While the Germans, particularly in their public statements, were still overwhelmingly favorably inclined toward Israel, criticism and disap- proval were increasing. People spoke of Israel's unyielding attitude, missed oppor- tunities, unreadiness to compromise, of its indecision and helplessness. At the same time, the federal government was often criticized for carrying its neutrality too far, especially for being too friendly to the Arabs because of oil. There was a demand for an explicit policy statement by the Federal Republic in support of Israel's right to live. Meeting in Kassel in January, the synod of the German Evangelical Church adopted a resolution emphasizing that solidarity with Israel must not be sacrificed for economic advantages. At the same time, the right of the Palestinians to a homeland must not be neglected. With regard to efforts for peace in the Middle East, it continued, "we should do all in our power to oppose in our country any manifesta- tion of a new antisemitism, as well as of an anti-Arab attitude." In the same month the Evangelical synod of the Rhineland asserted the "duty of all Christians to support the right of Israel to live" in view of "the danger of Israel's increasing isolation in the world." In December the state congress of the Evangelical Reformed Church in northwest Germany asked the government to declare itself unmistakably and unequivocally for Israel's right to exist. "Friendly relations of our country with Arab states, desirable as they are, and necessary efforts to solve the problem of the Palestinian refugees must not be purchased at the expense of our 'special relationship' with Israel. . . We call on our communities not to slacken in their solicitude for Israel." Israel's economic policies affected German-Israeli trade. The German ministry for economics, to be sure, felt that Israeli restrictions would not have any serious consequences for German enterprises, since trade was rather limited, but that a smaller volume of exports was to be expected. In 1974 the Federal Republic's imports from Israel amounted to DM 436 million and exports to DM 1,252 million. Israeli firms were represented at 12 international trade fairs in the Federal Republic. In December the group of German Dr. Amann firms, through its subsidiary for Israeli German investment, Gefidi, concluded an agreement with the Israeli Oil 346 / AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, 1976 Exploration (Investments) Ltd. and Yekutiel Federmann's Fed Oil Company group for investment in an Israeli oil-drilling program in 1975-76. When the German government rejected Israel's plan to establish a direct air route between Frankfurt and Jerusalem (Atarot), Israel decided on a route with an intermediate stop at Lod. In May the German-Israeli Committee for Scientific and Technological Coopera- tion met, for the first time, in Bonn under the leadership of Hans-Hilger Hauschild, secretary of the ministry for research and technology, and Dr. Eliezer Tal, director of the Israeli National Council for Research and Development, to discuss the coordina- tion and promotion of joint German-Israeli research projects. Several programs were agreed on, in particular in the fieldso f medical technology, biotechnology, and water purification. The Volkswagen Foundation gave DM 180,000 to finance the excava- tion of the ancient mining center of Timna in southern Israel. Other gifts of money to Israel included DM 750,000 delivered by North Rhine-Westphalia's Labor Minister Werner Figgen to Tel Aviv for the establishment of a kindergarten; DM 20,000 from the West Berlin government to the mayor of Kiryat Shemona for the victims of Arab terrorism; DM 10,000 from the municipal council of Stuttgart for the Shavei-Zion moshav established by German Jewish refugees. The Jerusalem Yad Vashem Foundation's Medal of the Righteous for 1974 was presented to Klara Kaus of Mannheim, Johanna Eck of Berlin, and Josefa Olsch- wang of Bad Godesberg, for help to Jews during the Nazi period. Throughout the year there was an active flow of visitors between the two countries. The German-Israeli mixed commission for youth exchange in the Bonn ministry for youth, family, and health planned further programs. And the German Federation of Trade Unions and Histadrut increased the exchange of skilled workers, apprentices, schoolboys, and students. Among those who visited Israel in 1974 were a delegation of the German Red Cross; 21 Catholic youth leaders; numerous German young people and skilled workers who did volunteer work in kibbutzim; the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Hamburg State Opera, and the German national junior soccer team. From Israel came many teachers, students, youth leaders, social workers, kibbutz members, trade-unionists, journalists, policemen, and others. One may mention in particular a Histadrut women's delegation; Jewish and Arab teachers from the Martin Buber Center in Jerusalem, who took part in an international sensitivity seminar in West Berlin; 22 members of the Israeli Liberal party; the director of the Israeli development authority; the deputy director of the Israeli state forest authority; 40 representatives of the Israeli post and television administration; a group of deaf Israeli youths; Zubin Mehta, the conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orches- tra; author Ephraim Kishon (so far, 12 million copies of his books have been sold in West Germany); the Israeli national soccer and chess teams, and a delegation of young members of the Israeli National Religious party. WEST GERMANY / 347 Christian-Jewish Cooperation A poll by the EMNID Institute indicated that most Germans had no idea .of the actual number of Jews living in the Federal Republic. The average estimate of 83 per cent of the respondents was 268,000; the rest could give no answer. Estimates ranged from 10,000 to one million. The Societies for Christian-Jewish Cooperation continued to take the lead in interfaith activity. In May, 90 delegates from 45 local societies met in Frankfurt for the annual meeting of the German Coordinating Council of the Societies for Christian-Jewish Cooperation to discuss current problems in the more than 25-year- old history of Christian-Jewish cooperation. Resolutions were adopted against Arab terrorism and for the ratification by parliament of the Franco-German agreement on the prosecution of Nazi criminals by German courts. In March the societies conducted Brotherhood Week under the slogan "Der geplante Mensch." The Coun- cil presented the London-domiciled historian and author, H. G. Adler, with the Buber-Rosenzweig medal for his book, Der verwaltete Mensch ("The Administered Man"), which deals with the Nazi deportations of the German Jews. In its Rosh Ha-shanah message the Council declared: The quantity and, above all, the quality of contacts between Jews and non-Jews in our country have not yet reached the point where one could hope for a rapid decline in prejudice, misinformation, intentional stupidity, and plain ignorance. Imagination and patience should have made more people capable of overcoming this deficiency. . . . The concrete debris of the war has been removed, but this has not yet been the case with the intellectual debris of what had led to fascism and war. The Societies for Christian-Jewish Cooperation conducted numerous student trips to Israel; invited German schoolchildren and students to observe Jewish institutions and meet with Jewish leaders, and held seminars to improve interfaith understanding. In January a seminar on Christian-Jewish-Moslem religious questions took place in Bendorf on the Rhine. Rabbis and rabbinical students from London were among the participants. Protestant clergy, Catholic priests, and rabbis took part in a Christian-Jewish Bible Week, which began at the end of July. In September the Evangelical Academy at Arnoldshain conducted a discussion by Jews and Christians of "The Church and the Jewish People." At a seminar in Regensburg in November, Christian teachers and theologians dealt with the problem of the image of the Jewish people conveyed in religious instruction, and criticized the failure to eliminate anti-Jewish passages from textbooks. Anonymous German donors gave DM 300,000 for the restoration of buildings in the Venice ghetto (e.g., the Schola Grande Tedesca). The Frankfurt trade-union Bank for Cooperative Economy (Bank fur Gemeinwirtschaft) established a board on Jewish history to encourage research in the field, and to collect and publish studies on the Jews in Germany, the first of which was to be a history of the Jews in Frankfurt. The group includes German and Jewish representatives; its chairman was Walter Hesselbach, chairman of the bank. In March the Verband der Judaisten 348 / AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, 1976 in der Bundesrepublik (Society of Judaica Experts), both Jews and non-Jews, was formed in Frankfurt, with the aim of coordinating Jewish studies throughout Ger- many. In May the Frankfurt Society for the Promotion of Jewish Studies published the first issue of a booklet titled Frankfurter Judaistische Beitrdge ("Frankfurt Judaistic Contributions"). In July, 410 former Berlin Jews, mostly from the United States, spent a week in the city as guests of the municipality. Since 1969 when the program of visits began, 4,400 former Berliners came to the city; another 15,000 were on the waiting list. The annual cost to the city of Berlin was some DM 700,000. In April Bundestag Presi- dent Annemarie Renger visited the Leo Baeck Institute in New York. In April the Evangelical Aktion Suhnezeichen (Action Atonement) and other Berlin organizations, in an appeal to the public to help Syrian Jews, declared: "Christians must not be silent." In June President Walter Scheel presented the Federal Service Cross First Class to Dr. and Mrs. Werner Eisenberg, a non-Jewish couple, for saving the life of a Jew during the Hitler regime.

Restitution Chancellor Schmidt's policy statement to the Bundestag in May declared that "With the 28th supplement to the law for the Equalization of Burdens . . and a few possible minor corrections necessitated by the history of the German people, the federal government regards this complex of obligations resulting from the war, including in particular compensation for war prisoners, Equalization of Burdens, restitution, and the laws under Article 131, as completed." The Federal Republic, or rather its taxpayers, thus far had paid out DM 220 billion; another DM 174 billion would still have to be paid. The government knew, he continued, that "a satisfactory settlement for the many injuries, such as one might like to see, cannot be achieved. The tax-paying capacity of this people is not adequate for that. Now the tasks that lie ahead of us must take precedence. Their fulfillment, too, serves the injured." At the end of 1974 the payments by the Federal Republic totaled DM 52.4 billion, of which DM 39 billion were paid under the Federal Indemnification Law (BEG), DM 4.2 billion under the Restitution Law, DM 3.4 billion to Israel, DM 1 billion under international agreements with 12 states, and the rest under various other laws. Future pension payments under BEG were expected to total another DM 25 to 30 billion. At that time, discussions were still going on between Jewish organizations, headed by Nahum Goldmann as representative of the Conference of Jewish Material Claims against Germany, and the federal government on the settlement of hardship cases of victims of Nazism, especially the so-called post-1965 cases. Bonn declared itself ready, in principle, to supply a fund of about DM 600 million for this purpose. The government continued to refuse reparation payments to foreign states, but was prepared to grant them generous credits. Belgrade accepted a credit of DM 700 million. Poland continued to demand additional reparation payments for former WEST GERMANY / 349 concentration-camp inmates and other Nazi victims, to which Bonn refused to agree. It was pointed out that the DM 100 million Bonn had paid in 1972-73 through the Red Cross to Polish victims of medical experiments had not yet been transmitted to them.

Nazi Trials The news sheet of the Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland (Central Council of Jews in Germany) reported in December that between the end of the war and January 1, 1974, German legal authorities had conducted 77,820 investigations of suspected Nazi criminals. Of these, 6,375 led to convictions. Proceedings were still pending against some 3,000 charged with murder. The Central Office for the Investi- gation of Nazi Crimes in Ludwigsburg was in the process of preparing 276 murder cases for trial. The Central Office felt that the likelihood of meting out justice to Nazi murderers who were still alive was declining from year to year. Nevertheless, the agency was expected to continue its activities, at least until 1980. A public opinion poll showed that 60 per cent of the Germans were for amnesty for Nazi criminals and 25 per cent for the continuation of the trials; 15 per cent had no opinion. The Franco-German agreement of 1971, enabling German courts to prosecute Nazi criminals who had been condemned in absentia by French courts, had not been ratified by year's end, although Chancellor Schmidt and the parties in the government coalition had promised earlier that it would. The statement was made in connection with the trial and sentence to two months imprisonment of Beate Klars- feld who, in March 1971, had participated in an attempt to abduct from Cologne to France former Nazi security police chief in Paris Kurt Lischka, one of those affected by the agreement. According to the Ludwigsburg Central Office, ratification would affect some 500 cases, but fewer than two dozen prosecutions could be expected. Chief Prosecutor Adalbert Ruckerl, who heads the office, explained why results would fall short of expectations. Of 196 Germans who had carried out the deportation of Jews from France, 75 had died, 3 had disappeared, and 51 had not yet been found. In 13 of the remaining 67 cases, it was not known whether the French courts had sentenced them. French proceedings against 12 others had been dropped. Only 21 condemnations in presence and 21 in absentia had resulted in France. In each case proof of guilt would now be difficult. Hamburg: 66-year-old Gustav Barschdorf, former SS Hauptscharfu'hrer and Ges- tapo official in Norway, was condemned to life imprisonment for implication in the murder of a woman resistance fighter; Felix Gruber, 71, former 55 Hauptschar- fuhrer and Gestapo official, was acquitted. Former SS Obersturmfiihrer Wolfgang Mohwinkel, 62, and SS Unterscharfiihrer Alois Groger, 68, were sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder, and participation in the murder, of Jews in labor camps near Lublin; Hans Offermann was sentenced to five years as an accomplice. Otto Hantke, 67, another former SS officer, received a life sentence for the murder 350 / AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, 1976 of Jews in the ghettos of Bialystok and Warsaw and as an accomplice in the murder of 300,000 Jews. In the same case, former SS Sturmbannfuhrer Georg Michalsen, 68, received a 12-year sentence. For participating in 7,000 murders and as an accomplice in 8,000 others, Gerhard Erren, 73, former district commissioner of Slonim in White Russia, was sentenced to life imprisonment; former gendarmerie top sergeant Lothar Schulz, 66, to three years. Mannheim: Former 55 Unterscharfuhrer Richard Pal was sentenced to eight years for the attempted murder of Jews in Galicia. Freiburg: Adolf Kiihnel, 60, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of nine Jews in Tschenstochau. Munich: Former SS Obersturmfuhrer Max Drexel, 60, and SS Obersturmfuhrer Walter Kehrer, 61, were sentenced to five and four years, respectively, as accom- plices in the extirpation of Jews and other civilians. Frankfurt: The retrial of Walter Fasold, 69, was discontinued in August because a juror declared herself prejudiced. Sentenced to life imprisonment in 1949 for the murder of Jews in Tschenstochau, he was released 23 years later because the testimony of a witness was shown to be inaccurate. Thus far, the cost of the second trial, begun in November 1972, was well over DM 1 million. Giessen: The trial of former 55 Obersturmfuhrer Hartmut Pulmer, 66, and Fried- rich Schulz, 64, for the murder of Jews and Poles was terminated because they were too ill to stand trial. The proceedings against their eight codefendants broke down because of a procedural error. Hamburg: The prosecution of Dr. Kurt Struve, 72, as an accomplice in the killing of the mentally ill was dropped because of his illness. For the same reason, a Hamburg court permanently dismissed charges against former 55 Gruppenfuhrer and bureau chief in the Reich security headquarters Bruno Streckenbach, 72, of having participated in the murder of over a million Jews. Essen: Proceedings against Horst Wagner, 68, former counselor of legation in the Nazi foreign ministry, as an accomplice in the murder of 350,000 Hungarian Jews were ended for reasons of health. Kiel: Heinz Riedel, 60, charged with gassing partisans, was acquitted on the ground that he acted without base motives. Frankfurt: Alois Frey, 63, former 55 Oberscharfuhrer and commander of Giin- tersgrube, subsidiary camp of Auschwitz, was acquitted in a murder trial because of contradictory testimony. The acquittal in Frankfurt in 1972 of Dr. Kurt Borm, charged with participating in the mass euthanasia of the mentally ill, on the grounds that he had not been aware of wrongdoing was upheld by the Federal Court of Appeals in Karlsruhe. WEST GERMANY / 351 JEWISH COMMUNITY

Demography On December 31, 1974, the Jewish population of the Federal Republic was 27,199, consisting of 14, 438 men and 12,761 women. Their average age was 45.8. During the year, there were 80 births, 525 deaths, 1,301 immigrants, 455 emigrants, and 62 converts to Judaism. West Berlin continued to have the largest Jewish community, with 5,493 members. There were 5,009 Jews in Frankfurt, 3,704 in Munich, 1,642 in Diisseldorf, 1,432 in Hamburg, 1,209 in Cologne. While most emigrants went to Israel or overseas, the stream of immigrants from Eastern Europe continued. Between autumn 1973 and December 1974, 546 Jews came to West Berlin from the Soviet Union, 15 of them directly and most of the others by way of Israel. All were cared for in the Marienfeld emergency reception camp. Two hundred were able to prove their German nationality and were integrated as Ger- mans. Seventeen left for other countries. On December 3 the Berlin senate granted residency permits to all remaining at the camp, as well as to 150 of their relatives who were due to arrive later. From then on, however, all new arrivals were to be treated like other foreigners. All except those recognized as German returnees and refugees would be urged to go back to Israel, and would face possible expulsion. Several hundred more Soviet Jews were stranded in other parts of West Germany. At year's end, the interior ministers of the various federal states had not been able to agree on a common policy on Jewish immigration. They announced, however, that the immigration laws would be more strictly enforced.

Communal Life The Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland had numerous discussions with German politicians, including President Scheel, several cabinet members, and party leaders on such matters as domestic and foreign policy, restitution problems, and humanitarian aid to persecuted Jews, e.g., in Syria. In August representatives of the Zentral- rat met with Foreign Minister Yigal Allon in Israel for talks on relations between Germany and Israel. In its internal discussions, the Zentralrat considered such questions as the needs of hard-pressed Jewish communities in Europe and the Arab countries, trials of Nazis, antisemitic propaganda, support of youth, and cooperation with German, foreign, and Israeli organizations. It appealed to the president and parliament to use their influence to stop persecution and terror, to help the Iraqi and Syrian Jews, and to give financial aid to the families of the victims of Arab terror in Israel. It also criticized German youth for its readiness to demonstrate for the persecuted in any country, except for the Jewish people when they are victims of terrorist attack and murder. At its conference in June, the Zentralrat stressed the German Jewish communities' solidarity with Israel and its great financial efforts on behalf of the state; 352 / AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, 1976 lamented the lack of adequate rabbinical and teaching personnel in the communities of the Federal Republic and of new blood for their institutions, and emphasized that the crucial aspect of communal work was the preservation of Jewish substance. In its Rosh Ha-shanah message, the Zentralrat explained that the self-sacrificing work of many leaders and members of the community could only partly compensate for the regrettable lack of rabbis, teachers, and Jewish learning. In November it criticized the speech of the German ambassador in the UN, as well as the UNESCO decisions against Israel and the Vatican peace prize award to that organization. Werner Nachmann, chairman of the Zentralrat's board of directors, asserted that although the status of the Jews and their institutions in the Federal Republic were now normalized, they "must share in political responsibility and maintain close contact with democratic organizations." Unfortunately, few Jews were ready to go into politics. Zentralrat general secretary, Alexander Ginsburg, gave a bleak picture of the Jewish situation: "Culturally, the Jews of Germany still suffer from the impoverishment produced by persecution; the future of many overaged communities is more than doubtful. Jewish academic youth, grappling with the content and form of its existence, has so far not become a relevant factor in Jewish communal life." In his Rosh Ha-shanah message to the Jewish community, SPD Chairman Willy Brandt spoke of "the almost habitual insecurity of living as a Jew in Germany." He said this "in full cognizance of the inner conflict of many of my Jewish friends," who were torn between a desire "for undivided loyalty to this state," and the temptation to embark on "an inner emigration from that state." It was, he said, "one of the obligations of our political behavior to remove this insecurity." Since years of political activity had taught him that the growth of a person's feeling of security and self-reliance was of his own doing, he would "like to give my Jewish friends courage to engage in politics much more actively than ever before. And this is not to add another lobby to the many already in existence, but for the sake of reinforcing the self-assurance of my Jewish fellow-citizens. Their contribution to the solution of current problems in German politics has thus far been small." An agreement between the West Berlin senate and the Berlin Jewish community, which was signed in October and was to take effect on January 1, 1975, supple- mented the January 1971 "Agreement for the Regulation of Question of Mutual Interest,1' assuring the financial support of the West Berlin Jewish community and its institutions. According to the senate, the existence and activity of a Jewish community are a matter of important public interest to Berlin. In October the Munich Neue Judische Zeitung (Naie Yiddishe Zaitung) ceased publication because of financial difficulties.

Religious Life At its January meeting, the Rabbinical Conference of the Federal Republic discussed whether rabbis should concentrate on religious questions, or should also WEST GERMANY / 353 participate in political affairs. Rabbi Ernst Roth of Frankfurt was reelected chairman of the Conference. The fourth volume of the Rabbinical Conference's organ, Udim, appeared in the summer. The year-end meeting of the Rabbinical Confer- ence, which took place in Zurich, Switzerland, was arranged also as a meeting with German-speaking rabbis from Switzerland and Austria. They discussed such common problems as the future replacements for rabbis and religious teachers, religious instruction, youth, conversions to Judaism, ecumenical religious services, and Chris- tian-Jewish cooperation. Rabbi Fritz Elieser Bloch of Stuttgart was elected chairman of the Conference, to succeed Rabbi Roth.

Jewish Youth and Religious Education According to a poll of Jewish youth in the Federal Republic, 80 per cent felt only emotional attachment to Judaism. The task of Jewish education was left to Jewish institutions, but neither religious instruction nor Jewish youth centers and groups could do it justice. There was no reason to believe that no young Jews would be left in Germany before long, since two-thirds of the youths interviewed said they would probably remain in the country. The majority of youths were ready to participate in community activities, but their elders failed to provide them with the necessary motivation to share in the work and the responsibility. Ninety per cent of respondents sought contact with other Jewish youths; 8 per cent of them for religious reasons. Jewish youth-group members met with similar groups abroad, as in Austria and Switzerland, for discussions and seminars. In February young West German Jews came to West Berlin for discussions on Jewish identity, youth work, Jewish solidarity, and activity and propaganda on behalf of Israel. At a conference of delegates in November, the Bundesverband Jiidischer Studenten in Deutschland (Federation of Jewish Students) complained of disinterest in active participation in the Federa- tion among Jewish students, as well as of the unwillingness of Jewish organizations to support the group's activities, and stressed the need to stimulate interest in Judaism and Israel.

Antisemitism ; In April the Jewish cemeteries in Goettingen and Mainz were desecrated. While in Goettingen more than a hundred gravestones were overturned, in Mainz 98 stones were defaced with swastikas, SS runes, Stars of David, "Heil Hitler," and "Raus." Similar daubings appeared on the walls of the Mainz city hall and a bank building. Shortly thereafter, 22-year-old Willi Wegner, a noncommissioned officer in the German army, and seven other young right-wing extremists were arrested as sus- pects. Wegner, in whose home arms and ammunition were found, was charged with having attempted to reestablish the Nazi party and promptly discharged from the army. The investigation was taken over by the office of the federal prosecutor in Karlsruhe, which, in September, completed investigations on Wegner and three of 354 / AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, 1976 the codefendants: another noncommissioned officer, a student, and a customs official. Also desecrated were the cemeteries in Cologne (July) and Laudenbach in Lower Franconia (December). In April the commemorative tablet of a Frankfurt synagogue was defaced with Nazi symbols. In May in West Berlin, a 29-year-old student, Hilmar Budde, was sentenced to fiveyear s imprisonment for an unsuccessful attack in 1969 on the city's El Al office, and other criminal acts. In September a Munich court sentenced a 57-year-old worker to seven months in prison and a DM 1,000 fine for agitating against the Jews and threatening a Jewish woman with murder. In November a Wiesbaden court sentenced a 25-year-old chauffeur to six months in prison and a DM 1,000 fine for smearing antisemitic slogans on a wall.

Publications Among new books on the Middle East conflict published in 1974 were: Gudrun Tempel, Niemand spricht von Jericho: Zwischen Krieg und Frieden in Israel ("No One Speaks of Jericho: Between War and Peace in Israel"; Bertelsmann); Amos Elon and Sana Hassan, Dialog der Feinde ("Between Enemies: A Compassionate Dialogue Between an Israeli and an Arab"; Molden), and Ben Porat and Philippe Aziz, Verwundete Erde ("Wounded Earth"; Schweizer Verlagshaus). Works dealing with the State of Israel were Friedrich Bettex, Aus Israels Geschichte ("From Israel's History"; Steinkopf)> Eva and Zeev Goldmann and Hed Wimmer, Israel: Seine Legende und Seine Geschichte ("Israel: Its Legend and History"; C. J. Buchner), Viktor Malka, Israel erleben ("Experiencing Israel"; Hieronimi), and David Reifen, Das Jugendgericht in Israel ("Israel's Juvenile Court"; Walter de Gruyter). The Jews under Nazism was discussed in S. Adler-Rudel, Jiidische Selbsthilfe unter dem Naziregime, ("Jewish Self-Help Under the Nazi Regime, 1933-1939"; C.J.B. Mohr-Paul Siebeck), the 10th edition of Das Tagebuch der Anne Frank ("The Diary of Anne Frank"; 10th edition, Lambert Schneider, 37th edition, Fischer Taschenbuch), which made a total of 1,142,000 copies for all editions, H. G. Adler, Der Verwaltete Mensch: Studien zur Deportation der Juden aus Deutschland ("The Administered Man: Studies of the Deportation of the Jews from Germany"; J.C.B. Mohr-Paul Siebeck). There seemed to be lively interest in Judaism and Jewish history. Among works published in 1974 were: Andreas Nissen, Gott und der Ndchste im antiken Judentum ("God and the Neighbor in Ancient Judaism"; J.C.B. Mohr-Paul Siebeck), S. Safrai and M. Stern, eds., The Jewish People in the First Century (Eng.; Neukirchener Verlag), Arye Ben-David, Talmudische Okonomie ("Talmudic Economics"; Georg Olms). Regional histories of the Jews in Germany included: Paul Arnsberg, 900 Jahre "Muttergemeinde in Israel": Frankfurt am Main 1074-1974—Chronik der Rabbiner ("900 Years of 'Parent Community in Israel': Frankfurt am Main 1074- 1974—Chronicle of the Rabbis"; Josef Knecht), Paul Arnsberg, Die jiidischen Ge- WEST GERMANY / 355 meinden in Hessen: Bilder, Dokumente ("The Jewish Communities of Hesse: Pic- tures and Documents"; Roether), Lilli Zapf, Die Tiibinger Juden ("The Jews of Tubingen"; Katzmann), and Helga Krohn, Die Juden in Hamburg ("The Jews of Hamburg"; Christians). East European Jewry was the subject of Richard Hammer, Burger zweiter Klasse: Antisemitismus in der Volksrepublik Polen und der UdSSR ("Second-class Citizens: Antisemitism in the People's Republic of Poland and in the USSR"; Hoffmann und Campe), Claudio Magris, Weit von wo: Die verlorene Welt des Ostjudentums ("Far from Where: The Lost World of East European Jewry"; Europa). Jewish family life was discussed by Johannes Barta in Jiidische Familiener- ziehung ("Jewish Family Upbringing"; Benziger) and by Franz Hubmann and Janko Musulin in Das jiidische Familienalbum ("The Jewish Family Album"; Molden). Biographical works included Hans I. Bach, Jacob Bernays, the 19th- century classicist and philologist, (J.C.B. Mohr-Paul Siebeck); Felix Gilbert, ed., Bankiers, Kiinstler und Gelehrte: Unveroffentlichte Briefe der Familie Mendelssohn aus dem 19. Jahrhundert ("Bankers, Artists and Scholars: Unpublished Letters of the Mendelssohn Family from the 19th Century"; J.C.B. Mohr-Paul Siebeck); Berthold Gerner, ed., Martin Buber (Ehrenwirth), Hartmut Kircher, Heinrich Heine und das Judentum ("Heinrich Heine and Judaism"; H. Bouvier), Margarita Pazi, Max Brod: Werk und Persb'nlichkeit ("Max Brod: Works and Personality"; H. Bouvier). Several books dealt with the Yiddish and Hebrew languages and literature: Pin- chas E. Lapide, Die Venvendung des Hebrdischen in den christlichen Religions- gemeinschaften mit besonderer Beriicksichtigung des Landes Israel ("The Use of Hebrew in the Christian Religious Communities With Special Reference to the State of Israel"; Neukirchener Verlag), Salcia Landmann, Jiddisch: Das Abenteuer einer Sprache ("Yiddish: The Adventure of a Language"; Walter), Helmut Dinse, Die Entwicklung des jiddischen Schrifttums im deutschen Sprachgebiet ("The Develop- ment of Yiddish Literature in the German-Language Territory"; Metzler).

Personalia Hilde Domin, German lyric poet, received the Roswitha Memorial medal from the city of Bad Gandersheim (Lower Saxony). The DM 20,000 cultural prize of the German Trade Union Federation was awarded to Professor Carl Landauer, econo- mist and writer on the history of Socialism in Europe, and resident of California since 1936. The DM 10,000 Georg Biichner prize of the German Academy for Language and Poetry went to author Hermann Kesten, a resident of Rome and president of the PEN Center of the Federal Republic. The DM 8,000 Literature Prize of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts went to the Berlin-born Israeli scholar and author Gershom Scholem for his work on the Kabbalah. The DM 10,000 Upper-Silesian Culture prize of North Rhine-Westphalia went to the Silesian-born author Max Tau of Oslo. For his efforts on behalf of interfaith understanding, Stefan Schwarz, chairman of the Jewish community in Straubing, Bavaria, received the 356 / AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, 1976 Federal Service Cross, First Class. For his contribution to the improvement of Franco-German relations, Alfred Wachsmann, chairman of the Jewish community in Baden-Baden and member of the Jewish Council of Baden, was awarded the French decoration "Officier des Palmes Academiques." Kurt Horwitz, playwright and director, died in Munich on February 14, at the age of 76. Max Plaut, a banker, jurist, author, and Jewish communal leader, died in Hamburg on March 8, at the age of 72. Walter Gottheiner, since 1950 chairman of the Bonn Jewish community, former member of the Central Council of Jews in Diisseldorf, recipient of the German Order of Merit, First Class, and other awards, died in Bonn in March, at the age of 79. Siegmund Weltlinger, former member of the West Berlin legislature, city elder, leading champion of Christian-Jewish understanding, recipient of the Grand Federal Service Cross and other awards, died in West Berlin on May 18, at the age of 88. Joseph Wulff, historian, author of numerous books on the Third Reich, committed suicide in West Berlin on October 9, at the age of 62. Jean Mandel, member of the Bavarian Senate, chairman of the Fuerth Jewish community and the Federation of Jewish communities of Bavaria, died in Fiirth on December 25, at the age of 63.

FRIEDO SACHSER East Germany

A SURVEY of the situation of the Jews in the German Democratic Republic (DDR) appeared in No. 3-4, 1974, of Emuna, the organ of the Coordinat- ing Council of the Societies for Christian-Jewish Cooperation in Frankfurt. Its author, Dr. Peter Kirchner, a physician, is chairman of the East Berlin Jewish community and cochairman of the Federation of Jewish Communities of the Ger- man Democratic Republic. According to his report, there are eight Jewish communities: Berlin, Dresden, Karl-Marx-Stadt, Erfurt, Halle, Magdeburg, and Schwerin, with a total membership of 800. The president of the Federation is Helmut Aris, the chairman of the Dresden community. Of the 445 Jews of the East Berlin community, 314 are over 60 years of age, 11 are children, and 24 youths. Throughout the state, Kirchner wrote, Jews enjoy equal rights, including religious freedom, which is guaranteed by the constitution. Victims of fascism, for the most part old-age pensioners, receive from the state special pensions of 950 marks a month, significantly more than the average wage. They also receive special medical care and have the right to an annual stay at a health spa. With regard to Israel, Kirchner said that while East German Jews approved of the founding of that state, they "cannot be silent" about the fact that they do not always understand or approve of its policies. In his view, Israel "has not understood how to resolve through negotiations the contradictions created by its establishment," and especially those created by the 1967 war. "We think," he continued, "that particularly people who themselves came ... as refugees from their previous homelands must now summon up understanding for the Palestinian Arabs who became refugees through the establishment of the State of Israel." The statement expressed hope that the Geneva conference would lead to "guarantees for the independence and sovereignty of the State of Israel within secure boundaries and a just solution for the Arab inhabitants of the country, as well as those who fled because of military conflicts." Only thus, it said, will Israel's continued existence in the Arab area be possible. The fact that no East German Jews have so far applied for emigration to Israel, Kirchner maintained, is regarded as proof that "after years of cruel persecution, they have found even in a German state . . . what they regard as a place for a peaceful and secure life.*' The report concludes with "the well- founded hope that the Jewish community of East Berlin, even though the number of its members will decline in the coming years because of advanced age, will continue to exist and preserve the traditions of Judaism." Because of labor shortage, the Jewish communities are concerned about the future maintenance of the 130 cemeteries in the DDR. The largest, in Berlin-Weissensee, has 114,000 graves. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the DDR in October,

357 358 / AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, 1976 the Federation of Jewish Communities sent the following message to State Secretary for Church Affairs Hans Seigewasser: Twenty-five years are not a long time in the history of mankind, but in this short period our Republic has developed into a strong bulwark of Socialism, humanism, and peace. ... As equals among equals, the citizens of Jewish faith have taken part in the building of our Republic. By strictly adhering to the Potsdam Agreement, the DDR has banished antisemitism and racism from the thinking of its citizens, and our youth, as it must be in a Socialist and peace-loving state, is raised in the spirit of international understanding and humanism. Seigewasser replied, in part: As your High Holy Days approach we celebrate together the 25th anniversary of the founding of the DDR, a meaningful event also for the citizens of Jewish faith. They have learned, in a special way, that Socialism and peace, Socialism and democracy, Socialism and humanism constitute an indivisible whole, and are indestructible principles of our social development. With equal rights and equal duties they have taken part in the building of our new order and have found a peaceful and secure home in our socialist society, in which there is no room and no basis for racism and antisemitism. Together with you, I wish for a just solution of the conflict in the Middle East on the basis of Resolution 242 of the UN Security Council. Humanism and human dignity are the highest law as well as the reality in our state; because, under the leadership of the Socialist Unity party, we have successfully used the historical opportunity given us by the Soviet Union's destruction of Hitler-fascism. When it exchanged ambassadors with the United States, the DDR declared itself ready to discuss compensation for United States citizens whose property had been confiscated before or after 1945, but stated that this did not imply basic recognition of an obligation of any kind to make reparation for Nazi injustice. This it continued to reject. Demands for damages by Poland were also rejected by East Berlin. In August a delegation of the PLO executive committee, led by Yasir Arafat, visited East Berlin. An official communique issued on the occasion expressed the wish for closer cooperation, and declared that the German Socialist Unity party would support PLO as the only rightful representative of the Arab people of Pales- tine in its just struggle for the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination. When, in November, an Israel Communist party (Maki) delegation visited East Berlin, the Israeli and East German parties issued a joint communique calling for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from all Arab areas occupied in June 1967.

FRIEDO SACHSER Austria

A HE OSTERREICHISCHE VOLKSPARTEI (OVP; Austrian People's party), which won an absolute majority in the 1966 national elections to become the first conservative ruling government party in the history of the republic, remained in power only until March 1970. The single-party government of Chancellor Josef Klaus, which had replaced the 20-year "black-red" (People's and Socialist parties) coalition system, was soon faced with an erosion of public confidence. The People's party, plagued by permanent infighting of its three main pressure groups—the farmers, industry, and the non-Socialist employees—failed to tackle the basic structural problems. An example of the wavering politics of the OVP government was the tax question. A reduction of wage and income taxes, announced with much publicity in 1967, was reversed six months later by steep increases. In January 1968 Klaus reshuffled his cabinet. Vice-Chancellor Fritz Bock, For- eign Minister Lujo Toncic-Sorinj, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schmitz, Interior Minister Franz Hetzenauer, and two state secretaries were removed. The main reason for the move was rising criticism of the failure to reach agreement with the Common Market, the deadlock with Italy in negotiations over the Alto Adige (South Tyrol) controversy, and the deterioration of the country's economic situation. All the ousted ministers had been involved with one or more of these key issues. Thus, Bock had negotiated with the EEC; Toncic and and Hetzenauer had failed to ease tensions with Italy, and Schmitz was partly blamed for the government's unpopular economic policy. The new members in the Klaus cabinet included Her- mann Withalm (Vice-Chancellor), Kurt Waldheim (Foreign Affairs), and Stephan Koren (Finance). One of the most pressing issues in the late 1960s of Austria's foreign politics was the South Tyrol question (AJYB, 1967 [Vol. 68], p. 370). Negotiations on the "package deal," which included concessions of a certain autonomy for South Tyrol as proposed by the Italian government in 1964, dragged on until 1969. In October of that year came South Tyrolean approval, and relations between Italy and Austria have improved considerably since then. The step-by-step implementation of the agreement was still in progress. In the course of the four-year rule of the Klaus government, the opposition Socialists made steady gains in the provincial elections. After the Socialist setback in 1966, a party congress elected Bruno Kreisky as party leader. He followed Bruno Pittermann, now president of the Socialist International. Backed mainly by provincial party leaders and supported by a brain trust of some 1,400 experts in various fields, Kreisky began to build for his party a more liberal image, especially geared to the middle class. The proposed reforms were to be in economic and social policy, education, health and environment, chief among them 359 360 / AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, 1976 a reduction in military service, of particular importance to some 400,000 Austrians who reached voting age in 1970, and the elimination of "glaring injustices" of the "antiquated" income and wage tax. In the spring of 1970 a self-confident Socialist party took the initiative in the election campaign with such slogans as "It's time for a change!" and "Give us a chance to build a modern Austria." The People's party campaign posters advertised Klaus as a "real Austrian,' a description aimed at Kreisky's Jewish origin. On March 1, 1970, 91.97 per cent of all eligible Austrians went to the polls. The People's party polled 2,051,012 votes, the Socialists 2,221,981, the pan-German right-wing Osterreichische Freiheitliche Partei (FPO; Freedom party) 253,425, and the Osterreichische Kommunistische Partei (KPO; Communist party) 44,750 votes. The Socialists gained 81 seats and thus the relative majority; the conservatives' seats were cut back from 85 in 1966 to 78; the Freedom party lost one seat and retained five. Since the 1959 elections, the first after the 1956 revolt in Hungary, the tiny Communist party had failed to win a single parliamentary seat. A second setback for the party was the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops. Its leading ideologist, Ernst Fischer, was expelled from the party in 1969 after having strongly condemned the invasion. Hundreds of other intellectuals left voluntarily. About one-third of all party members was purged in the aftermath of the invasion, relegating the party to its present virtual political insignificance. The 1970 elections, and the subsequent formation of a Socialist minority cabinet, were another taboo-breaking political event in Austria's postwar history. Kreisky's cabinet was the first minority government since the end of World War II; for the first time in Austria, a predominantly Catholic country, the Socialists gained more seats in parliament than the People's party, and for the first time, a Jew by birth became chancellor. Kreisky has been regarded as one of the ablest politicians of contemporary Austria. After spending two months in prison, he was forced to leave Austria in 1938. He went to Stockholm and, after the war, became the first Austrian diplomatic representative there. His political career in Austria began in 1951. As secretary of state, from 1953 to 1959, and subsequently, as foreign minister until 1966, he was chiefly responsible for the country's foreign policy. He used to say, "There are two things I can never achieve in Austria because of my Jewish origin: to become Socialist party leader or the nation's chancellor.1' The Socialist government barely had time to enjoy its victory before it ran into trouble. In May Simon Wiesenthal, director of the Documentation Center of the Association of Jewish Nazi Victims, revealed that Agriculture Minister Hans Ollin- ger had been an officer in Hitler's Elite Guard (SS); Minister of Interior Otto Rosch and Minister of Transportation Erwin Friihbauer had Nazi pasts. Although Kreisky pledged full support of Ollinger, the latter resigned in May 1970 for health reasons. At a party congress in June, Minister for Education and Arts Leopold Gratz attacked Wiesenthal, claiming that the Center had created a "private police and AUSTRIA / 361 informers' organization in Austria," and questioning "whether our state can tolerate private revenge organizations." A special election was held in October for the 472,000 voters in three Viennese districts because of fraud committed in the general elections by the extreme right- wing National-Demokratische Partei (NDP), a tiny splinter group and counterpart of the West German neofascist NDP. Unable to muster the required 200 signatures in a district to run a candidate, NDP forged 73, thus invalidating the vote. The Freedom party, which in the March elections had been only 73 votes short of a sixth parliamentary seat, gained this seat in the special election by a narrow majority of 537 votes. The number of Socialist and People's party seats remained unchanged. Another important election was held in April 1973 when President Franz Jonas, a Socialist, was reelected by 52.79 per cent of the electorate for a second six-year term. The People's party candidate, former Foreign Minister Kurt Waldheim and at the time ambassador to the UN, polled 47.21 per cent of the votes. On January 1, 1972, Waldheim became Secretary General of the UN. The Socialists interpreted the good showing in the presidential elections as a sign of Austria's pro-Socialist leaning. In July 1971 Kreisky asked parliament to dissolve itself to clear the way for general elections in the fall. In the campaign, the Socialists stressed the achievements in the one-year rule of their minority cabinet: They had enacted a new electoral law giving greater equality to all parties; cut down military service from nine to six months (the bill was passed by the combined votes of the Socialists and the Freedom party), and abolished a ten per cent surtax adopted by the previous Conservative government. The elections, held on October 10, saw a turnout of 92.44 per cent of the electorate. The Socialist party polled 2,280,142 (50.04 per cent) votes, the Conservatives 1,969,809 (43.12 per cent), the Freedom party 248,432 (5.45 per cent), giving them 93, 80 and 100 seats, respectively, in the lower house of parliament. The Commu- nists polled 61,756 (1.35 per cent) votes, again short of the minimum required for a seat. In the 1971-1975 period, the invigorated Socialists began to institute some of the planned reforms. While on some reform bills, like those for new labor and penal codes, all parties reached compromises, others led to highly controversial parliamentary and public debates. This was especially true of the reforms of the state-run Austrian Radio and TV (ORF) and the abortion law, both of which met with stiff opposition, especially from the People's party. Socialist intentions to democratize ORF raised misgivings among Conservatives that this would mean a "red" mass medium. The abortion law legalizing termination of a pregnancy in the first three months aroused the indignation of Catholics. Its opponents rallied behind Aktion Leben (Action Life), a private organization which circulated a petition for a plebes- cite on the law that was to go into effect early in 1975. Although well over 800,000 signatures were collected, chances for the abrogation of the law were rather slim, since the Verfassungsgerichtshof (constitutional court) upheld its constitutionality. An even more explosive domestic issue emerged in the 1970s—the problem of the 362 / AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, 1976 Slavic minorities in Carinthia. The southern part of Carinthia had been a trouble spot since the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, when Yugoslav troops attempting to annex the area were fought off by Austrian volunteers. In a 1920 plebiscite, a majority of its population decided to remain Austrian. Under the 1922 Peace Treaty of St. Germain, Austria retained that area. When the Nazis occupied Austria in 1938, thousands of Slovenes were deported as "unreliable elements'' and replaced by German-speaking people, with the result that Carinthia had the highest percentage of National Socialists in all of Austria. Austria's State Treaty of 1955, which restored full sovereignty to Austria after ten years of Allied occupation, provided, among other things, for the installation of bilingual road and town signs and the maintenance of bilingual schools in the mixed population area of Southern Carinthia. In 1972, after the Austrian parliament had voted to implement these provisions, German-speaking extremists tore down the bilingual signs. The right-wingSocialists , who had held the majority in Carinthia since World War II, put the blame for this on the Landeshauptmann (provincial administrator), who had pledged the implementation of the provisions. Under his successor, Leopold Wagner, the Socialists steered a tougher course against the Yugoslav minority. The deteriorating situation brought sharp reaction from neigh- boring Yugoslavia which charged the Austrian government with failure to live up to the treaty. Chancellor Kreisky rejected the charge, but said that the clause on bilingual road signs could not yet be implemented for political reasons. During the campaign for the Carinthian provincial elections in March 1975, in which the Socialists retained their majority, Wagner made imprudent remarks that attested to the controversial character of the situation and drew international attention to it: "I think the SPO has been punished enough with the minority problem. I also think that my policies are appreciated in nationalistic circles. Although I was never a 'napola' [political school for Nazis] student, I was nevertheless a high-karate Hitler youth. However, there is no doubt that I now am a social democrat." The years 1973 and 1974 also brought changes in Austria's political leadership. Felix Slavik, the mayor of Vienna, resigned because of the growing criticism from the people as well as the rank and file of his party. The immediate cause was the so-called "preserve green Vienna" affair, involving a project to cut down 76 trees in an upper-middle-class section, which was opposed by the local residents and finally sparked a vociferous anti-Slavik campaign by the city's mass-circulation dailies. His successor was the Socialist parliamentary whip, Leopold Gratz, the education minister in Kreisky's first cabinet. A professional politican without municipal "know-how," Gratz led the Vienna Socialists to their greatest postwar political triumph in the October 1973 elections, by increasing their share of the popular vote from 56.9 to 60.2 per cent, and their seats in the 100-seat city council from 63 to 66. On April 24, 1974, President Franz Jonas died at the age of 74. He was succeeded by Rudolf Kirchschlager, a former career diplomat who had served as foreign minister in Kreisky's cabinet. AUSTRIA / 363 Economy The general economic situation showed six years of virtually uninterrupted boom conditions, with visible signs of a slowdown by mid-summer 1974. The gross national product rose by 7.8 per cent, 5.8 per cent, 7.1 per cent, and 5.5 per cent, respectively, in the years 1970 to 1973. In 1972 only Japan had a higher growth rate. The worldwide inflation also hit Austria, but the rate could be kept at a reasonably low level. In 1974 it was 9.4 per cent; West Germany (6.5 per cent) and Switzerland (9 per cent) were the only other countries to keep it below the 10 per cent mark. The effects of the "oil shock" were not felt too dramatically, since the nationalized Osterreichische Mineralolverwaltung AG (Austrian Oil Administration) could meet the most urgent demands by increasing its output capacity. However, the rise in crude oil prices in December 1973 had accelerated the price increases already under way. In 1973 the Austrian schilling was revalued upward twice—by 2.25 per cent in March and by 4.9 per cent in July—to shield the economy from the impact of rising prices. Since March of that year, the exchange rate of the schilling has been determined by dealings on the open market. Because of the rapid expansion of Austria's economy the unemployment rate was among the lowest in all of Europe. It was reduced by 2.8 per cent, to 1.6 per cent, in 1973. (It must be noted that Austrian classification methods tend to overstate this figure. By international standards, it could be put at 0.6 per cent.) In July 1972, after almost ten years of efforts, Austria, a founding member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) signed a free trade agreement with the European Economic Community. It recognized the special status of Austria as a neutral country, guaranteeing freedom of action in relations with third countries; the right to withdraw from the agreement at any time, and the complete abolition of customs and trade barriers for commercial and industrial goods between Austria and its trading partners no later than July 1, 1977. The main obstacles to the agreement had been the Soviet Union's view that it was incompatible with the terms of the Austrian State Treaty and with Austria's obligations as a neutral country, as well as Italy's refusal before 1969 to vote for the agreement in an attempt to influence negotiations on South Tyrol. The provisions on relations with third countries applied mainly to Communist countries, particularly to the Soviet Union. Austria was the first Western country to conclude long-term agreements with the USSR, which resulted in a considerable expansion of trade.

Middle East Policy Austria supported UN Security Council Resolution 242, which, according to a 1971 statement by then Foreign Minister Kirchschlager, in the general debate on the Middle East crisis, "has created the basis for a solution of the Middle East crisis." His government, he said, viewed partial agreements as a possible first step 364 / AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, 1976 to an eventual over-all settlement. Kirchschlager paid an official visit to Israel in April 1972. He had two meetings with then Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban, in which both emphasized the existing good relations between the two countries. In July 1973 Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Hassan el-Zayyat arrived for a four-day official visit to Austria. He said at a press conference that Egypt was looking for a "third door" that would allow the settlement of the Middle East conflict without the use of force. During the mid-July Middle East debate in the Security Council, Austria, along with 12 council members, backed the draft resolution that deplored the continuing occupation of Arab territories by the Israeli armed forces and, for the firsttime , mentioned "legal aspirations" of the Palestinian people (AJYB, 1974-75 (Vol. 75), p. 158). On August 1 Israel Ambassador to Austria Yitzhak Patish conveyed to Austrian Secretary General for Foreign Affairs Walter Wodak his government's "disappointment" and asked for an explanation of Aus- tria's apparent pro-Arab attitude. After the meeting, Wodak explained that Austria considered the resolution as the only possibility to end the deadlock in the Middle East. After the 1973 Yom Kippur war cease-fire, Austria, acting on a request by the United Nations, sent some 600 volunteers from the Austrian army to serve in the UN Emergency Force, first in Egypt and later in the buffer zone between Syrian and Israeli forces on the Golan Heights. Eight Austrian officers had served as UN observers along the cease-fire lines after the 1967 six-day war. In March 1974 Kreisky led a delegation of the Socialist International, composed of members of the Swedish, French, Italian, West German, Dutch, Japanese, and Austrian Socialist parties, on a fact-finding mission to Israel, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. The purpose was to sound out the "possibilities for a permanent solution of the Middle East conflict." At a dinner honoring Syrian Premier Mahmoud el-Ayyubi, who came to Austria in September 1974 on an official visit, Chancellor Kreisky reiterated Austria's desire to maintain good relations with all countries in the Middle East, but insisted that it was not prepared to sacrifice good relations with Israel for good relations with the Arab countries. "Israel," he said, "has created a modern state in the Middle East. It would be incompatible with our civilization if we did not recognize that fact." There were, of course, differences of opinion between Israel and Austria, especially on the Palestinian question. Commenting on Austria's abstention in the UN General Assembly vote on a permanent Palestinian representation in December 1974, the new Israel Ambassador to Austria Avigdor Dagan said, "the in-between stand is not always the most courageous." Kreisky's reply was that his country did not take "a pro-Arab line in the world forum"; that a "solution of the problem without a compromise on the question of the Palestinians is impossible." AUSTRIA / 365 Schonau Transit Camp The Palestinian terror attack in Marchegg on September 28, 1973, further strained relations between Israel and Austria. Two Palestinian terrorists kidnapped three Soviet Jewish emigrants and an Austrian customs official at a railroad station and took them to the Vienna airport before the police could intervene. They demanded that the authorities allow them to fly to an unspecified Arab country, where the three Jewish hostages would be exchanged for Arab prisoners held in Israel. The terrorists claimed to belong to the "Eagles of the Palestinian Revolution," an elite group of educated former members of al-Fatah. The two abductors also demanded that the transit of Soviet Jewish emigrants through Austria should be stopped. In the course of the negotiations, in which the ambassadors of Egypt, Libya, and Lebanon assisted, the Austrian government settled for a compromise. A statement that came out of an extraordinary meeting of the cabinet was read over the radio shortly after midnight. It said in part: "Considering the fact that the security of Soviet citizens emigrating in groups from the Soviet Union to Israel could be endangered while in transit through Austria, the government has decided to stop the facilities granted now or in the future for this purpose, such as temporary accomodations of these persons in the camp at Schonau." Shortly thereafter, the hostages were released by the terrorists, who were flown out of the country aboard a private plane piloted by two Austrians who volunteered for the job. In a radio broadcast shortly after the take-off, Kreisky said the decision had been made with a "heavy heart"; that his "foremost consideration" had been to save the lives of the hostages. "The most important thing was to ensure that nothing irrepara- ble was done.'" In an interview with the Israeli television 12 hours later, Kreisky emphasized that the decision did not imply that those with a valid visa would not be permitted to travel through Austria. Asked in which way the situation had changed, he replied that Austria will have to consider closing Schonau as a transit camp. "It has been in grave danger before," he said, "although this has not been generally known. We are not in a position to let Austria become a kind of secondary theatre of operations." In fact, the Austrian authorities had received several warnings and threats regarding Schonau. In January 1973 six Arabs were arrested, three in Vienna and the others at the Austro-Italian border. All six were members of the Black September organization, who had been planning an attack on the camp. The suspected terrorists were sentenced to four months in prison on charges of fraud, and were then asked to leave the country. In a precautionary move, the ministry of interior had ordered increased security at the camp as early as June 1972, with some 100 gendarmes assigned to around-the-clock duty. By Austrian standards, this had to be considered an extraordinary measure, if one considers that altogether 523 gendarmes are responsible for the entire province of Vorarlberg with its 271,473 inhabitants and some 35,000 resident immigrant workers. Kreisky further stressed that Austria had made it possible for "hundreds of 366 / AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, 1976 thousands of emigrants" to enter Austria and that his government would continue to live up to its humanitarian commitment. According to official statistics, 82,070 Soviet Jewish emigrants came through Vienna in transit to Israel between 1967 and the end of 1973, and 20,402 in 1974. While the decision of the Austrian government was sharply criticized in the foreign press, the majority of Austrians approved of the move. A public opinion poll showed 58 per cent thought the decision was the right one; only 22 per cent believed that it was not. Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, who at the time of the terrorist incident addressed the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, came to Vienna on October 2 to persuade Kreisky to change the decision, but failed. One day later, Egyptian Tourist Minister Ismail Fahmy visited Vienna and delivered an official letter of thanks from President Anwar al-Sadat, expressing satisfaction with the Austrian government's decision. In the aftermath of these events, however, it became clear that the decision to close Schonau posed a far greater problem than anticipated. The emigration camp was first moved to former army barracks in Wollersdorf, 40 kilometers south of Vienna, and then, in autumn, to a Vienna suburb. To the embarrassment of the government, the residents of the area strongly protested. Supervision of the facility was transferred from the Jewish Agency to the Red Cross. Kreisky again referred to the closing of Schonau when he returned from the Middle East in March 1974. He had informed the Arab governments, he said, that Austria would do nothing to curb the emigration of Soviet Jews to Israel.

Antisemitism Of some 2,000 letters that poured in to the chancellor's office praising the government's humane decision in the Marchegg incident about ten per cent were antisemitic in content. Yet Kreisky maintained, "Today, there is no more antisemitism in Austria. People are just talked into this. I have never felt any antisemitism anywhere." In its November issue, the liberal Vienna weekly Profil published the findings of a public opinion poll that clearly contradicted Kreisky's remarks. They showed that 70 per cent of all Austrians above the age of 16 years had antisemitic feelings. Of these, 24 per cent had "strong" antisemitic feelings; 35 per cent could not imagine marrying a Jew; 45 per cent believed that a Jew who does something good only acts in his own interest; 21 per cent felt that it would be best if there were no Jews in Austria. There were, of course, differences which were determined by age, education, and party membership. Generally, there was less antisemitism among the young, better educated, and members of the Socialist party. The strongest antisemitic trend was detected in rural areas and among the members of the right-wing Freedom party. Although not even the Freedom party, which has mostly former Nazi sympathiz- AUSTRIA / 367 ers in its ranks, would dare follow an open antisemitic line, it cannot be denied that there is a latent antisemitism at least among some Austrian politicians. During a parliamentary debate in February 1972 on the architects of proposed construction of a UN center in Vienna, two People's party deputies, Johann Haider and Walter Suppan, interrupted the debate with such exclamations as "only Jews" or "Is this also a Jew?" In July 1973 Hans Klement, vice-chairman of the Viennese section of the Freedom party, attacked the party's leader Friedrich Peter, a former SS Obersturmbannfiihrer, for favoring a coalition with the Socialists. In an interview, Klement, who had been a member of Austria's Nazi underground movement before the Nazi takeover in 1938, said that some "subconscious antisemitism,'' together with a "wide ideological gap," would prevent him from working with a Socialist Jewish politician. He resigned a week later, when Peter dissociated himself from these remarks. It was a newspaper series, "The Jews in Austria," that, more than any other event, sparked a heated debate on the subject of antisemitism. On Palm Sunday 1974, the first article appeared in the Vienna mass-circulation daily Neue Kronen-Zeitung. Purporting to be a documented history of the Jews, especially in Austria, the series contained a number of factual errors; quoted from a disproportionately large number of antisemitic publications, and used controversial figures, as for example those attempting to show the "Judaization" of the arts, literature, politics, and other areas. The main source was Ernest van den Haag's Die Juden, das ratselhafte Volk ("The Jews: An Enigmatic People"), which received strongly critical reviews in West Germany. The publication was preceded by an aggressive advertising campaign. Huge posters showed the Austrian flag with the Star of David in the middle and a caption reading, "The Jews in Austria—since decades a taboo in this country." Billboards featuring a rabbi in the genre of Sturmer caricatures were placed all over Vienna. Other ads asked: "Is there a Jewish character?", "Are Jews more intelligent than ordinary people?", or simply, "What is a Jew?" The series immediately drew protests. But there were also letters to the editor that voiced approval or more often, contained antisemitic tirades. The majority of the other newspapers condemned the series. Manfred Scheuch, chief editor of the Socialist Arbeiter Zeitung said: "In Austria, antisemitism survived even its victims, the Jews." The spectrum of critical voices reached from the conservative weekly Wochenpresse to the Communist Volksstimme, which rated the series as antisemitic. Other critics pointed out that the series distorted facts or simply contained many serious errors. Reimann attacked his critics in his daily column in the Kronen-Zeitung: "This hysteria of frightened people is the product of an agitation of a very few Jews in this country, who are interested in the continuing existence of antisemitism for personal advantage." In the same vein, he stated in one of the introductory remarks to the series: "One of the main causes of antisemitism is found in the Jews themselves"; it is "their desire to be different and to be separated from non-Jewish people." 368 / AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, 1976 Reimann, now a top columnist of the paper, was an illegal member of the Nazi party in 1936, but later joined the German Freedom Movement, an anti-Nazi resistance group. In 1943 he was sentenced by a Nazi court to ten years in prison for high treason. In 1949 Reimann became cofounder of the Union of Independents, which attracted mostly former Nazis and later became the Freedom party. Rudolf Antoni, chief editor of the government newspaper Wiener Zeitung, commented: "Reimann comes from the nationalistic camp.... It is necessary to say this because the author writes certain things which someone else, having different opinions, would have written differently." The Austrian Press Council finally took action in response to protest by the Jewish community and sharply condemned the series as "apt to activate potential antisemitism." Minister of Justice Christian Broda said he was "horrified" at the series. Editors of the Austrian radio and television called it "irresponsible." Pressure from various organizations finally grew so strong that the Kronen Zeitung stopped the series after several installments.

Nazi Trials In the last three years, prosecution of Nazi criminals virtually came to a standstill in Austria. Although courts had conducted preliminary proceedings against 800 persons in 1971, there were no trials in 1973 and 1974. The only legal action was taken by the Supreme Court, which squashed acquittals, ordered new trials, or, as in the case of Franz Novak, upheld the verdict handed down in the last trial. To a certain degree, the Novak case was a barometer for all Nazi trials in Austria. Novak, Adolf Eichmann's chief transport officer, had been sentenced in 1964 to eight years imprisonment for participating in the deportation of 400,000 Hungarian Jews. It was only after three more retrials that the Supreme Court, in January 1973, upheld the last court's seven-year sentence. Altogether, procedures against Novak required 11 years. Another case that dragged on endlessly was that of Franz Murer, who was acquitted by a court in Graz in 1963 of the charge of responsibility for the murder of thousands of Jews in Vilna. One year later, the Supreme Court ordered a new trial, during which the prosecution discontinued further action. The new criminal code of 1974 is expected to slow down the prosecution of Nazi crimes even more; for it contains a provision that will be advantageous to those who had committed crimes in countries where a statute of limitations made prosecution impossible. Another obstacle is that the Interior Ministry department dealing exclu- sively with Nazi crimes was dissolved and its activities taken over by another department. Between 1967 and 1972 several important trials took place. Walter Deljaco, a former SS-Obersturmftihrer, had been leading the respectable life of a master builder in Reutte (Tyrol) from 1952 until the start of action against him. Fritz Karl Ertl, a former SS-Untersturmfuhrer, carried on the same trade in Linz (Upper Austria). AUSTRIA / 369 Both were said to be responsible for the planning and installation of gas chambers. Both were acquitted because the jury believed their argument that they were not aware of the real purpose of chambers at the time of construction. Another trial that ended in acquittal was that of Johann Gogl, a former SS man who had joined the Mauthausen camp personnel in 1942 and soon became one of its most sadistic members. He was charged with the murder of 47 para- troopers (39 Dutch, seven British, and one American), 13 political prisoners, and three other inmates. His acquittal of all charges drew protests in Austria and abroad.

Restitution There were no significant changes in restitution laws in the period between 1967 and 1975. A law was in preparation which will entitle all people who between March 1933 and May 1945 had been persecuted for political or racial reasons and received no restitution under any other law to payment of 15,000 Austrian schillings (about $1,000).

JEWISH COMMUNITY

The Jewish population further decreased in the past seven years. In 1974 the total number of registered Jews in Vienna, Lower Austria, and Burgenland was 7,311; some 500 registered Jews lived in the other communities. An estimated 2,000 Jews were not registered with the community organizations. The total number of Jews living in Austria can thus be put at close to 10,000. Of the registered Jews, about 66 per cent were over 50 years old. In 1973 there were only 17 children aged between five and ten. In the same year, 19 persons returned from the United States, but 24 persons emigrated to Israel. There was a total decrease of 243 persons in 1972-73. All these factors indicate a further decline of the Jewish community.

Communal Activities In the 1972 elections of the Kultusgemeinde (Vienna Jewish Community) the Poale-Zion/Bund Werktatiger Juden (League of Working Jews), representing Zion- ist and Socialist politics, gained 14 seats; the Orthodox groups, 3; the Bund Jii- discher Verfolgter des Nazi Regimes (Association of Jewish Nazi Victims), led by Simon Wiesenthal, 3; the Zionist bloc, 4 seats. Dr. Anton Pick was elected president, Edmund Reis and Josef Heilpern vice-presidents. In 1972 the community offices and the home for the aged moved into a new and modern building. The home for the aged, which cared for about 150 persons, was combined with a 40-bed geriatric clinic, the first consolidation of this kind in 370 / AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, 1976 Austria. In spring 1975 Kirchschlager visited the new Elternheim, the first Austrian president to visit a Jewish home for the aged.

Education and Culture More than 30 children attended a kindergarten, which was built in 1973. Some 250 children attended two Talmud Torahs. The Kultusgemeinde was working on a youth exchange program with Israel. A number of books, essays, and scholarly dissertations, most of them historical in content, were published in the last seven years. In Das Osterreichische Judentum: Voraussetzungen und Geschichte ("The Austrian Jews: Assumptions and History"; Jugend und Volk, Vienna, 1974), the authors—Kurt Schubert, a professor of Jewish studies at the University of Vienna, Anna Drabek, Nikolaus Vielmetti, Wolfgang Hausler, and Karl Stuhlpfarrer—give an objective historical account of the fate of Austrian Jews from the Middle Ages to World War II. The book was generally considered the scholars' answer to the Kronen-Zeitung series. The following books dealt with specific historical questions: Clemens Thoma, Die Kirche aus Juden und Heiden: Biblische Informationen iiber das Verhaltnis der Kirche zum Judentum ("The Church of Jews and Gentiles: Biblical References on the Relation between the Church and Judaism"; Herder, Vienna, 1970); Nikolaus Vielmetti, "Das Osterreichische Judentum," in Religion und Kirche in Oesterreich ("The Austrian Jews,'' in "Religion and Church in Austria"; edited and published by Institute of Austrian Science, Vienna, 1972); Herbert Klein, "Beitrage zur Ges- chichte der Stadt Salzburg im Mittelalter, 2: Zur Geschichte der Juden in Salzburg," Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft fur Salzburger Landeskunde, No. 108, 1968 (Contri- butions to the History of Salzburg in the Middle Ages: On the History of Jews in Salzburg; Wolfgang Hausler, Werner J. Cahnman, and Willehad P. Eckert, Das Judentum im Revolutionsjahr 1848 ("The Jews in the Revolution Year 1848"; Studia Judaica Austriaca, Volume 1, Vienna, 1974). A number of books dealt with the persecution of Jews during the periods of Austro-fascism and the Nazi annexa- tion of Austria: Silvia Maderegger, Die Juden im b'sterreichischen Stdndestaat 1934- 1939 ("The Jews in the Austrofascist State 1934-1938"; Institute for History, University of Salzburg, 1973); Herbert Rosenkranz, "Reichskristallnacht": 9. November 1938 in Oesterreich, (Europaverlag, Vienna, 1968); Erika Weinzierl, Zu wenig Gerechte: Oesterreicher und die Judenverfolgung 1938-1945 ("Too Few of the Just Ones: Austrians and the Persecution of Jews 1938-1945"; Styria, Graz-Vienna, 1969).

Personalia Dr. Anton Pick, president of the Kultursgemeinde, received the Gold Decoration of Honor for Services to Austria in April 1975. Heinrich Sussman, one of Austria's most prominent Jewish artists, widely recognized painter, cartoonist, and stage designer in Vienna, Berlin, and Paris, celebrated AUSTRIA / 371 his 70th b;-thday in September 1974. A survivor of Auschwitz, he had suffered such a severe shock that he could not paint for 15 years. His best known works are the windows in the Jewish burial hall of the Zentralfriedhof (cemetery) depicting scenes from Auschwitz, a collection of etchings, "Ecco homo," on Nazi death camps, and another entitled, "Anatevka."

PETER FRIEDLINGER